January 9, 2010

Saturday, January 9, 2010

A new calm and quiet pervades. People come and go, the energy changes, but the overall theme is one of tranquility. I haven’t lived with friends since the early 70’s when I was much younger. I like Uta’s energy. Her vibration is so complementary that it’s good to have her here. The people who come by to see her are good people and always it’s been a pleasure to have them pass through, stay for a while and move along. Paul and I keep saying that this back porch behind our house which is shaped like an open curve feels like a stage that has different actors appear from time to time to take part in our play, with us as the main characters (probably since we rarely leave the stage.) I suppose, looked at that way, we are performing for the vast insect life that fills the air around us. Rather than the audience marveling at the activity taking place on the stage, we the actors upon the stage marvel at the audience – the birds and insects who appear in our arena from time to time. The set changes with the light and with the weather patterns as they roll across our panorama. An occasional person appears walking down the lane or planting a tree in the field across from us, but more often the characters appear from off stage to the left where just around the corner of the house, they enter the fenced yard through the front gate, grown over with tropical vines.

I’ve been noticing a magnetic pull drawing me from the plastic chair, which believe it or not is the most comfortable piece of furniture around with its reclining back, even though a large chunk of the front of the seat is missing, pulling me down to sit on the wooden planks of the deck which look weatherworn from the frequent rains. The wood soaks up the sun and though looking like a source of danger from splinters is actually smooth and seductively inviting. It calls me to its natural element and reminds me what a pox plastic is to the planet. Each plank of the deck, cut to fit the uniquely curved shape of the c-shaped porch, warped to a different height and slope with perhaps two or three in a row, level with each other. It makes finding the perfect place for the large wooden rocker a bit of a challenge to find a spot level enough to accommodate both rungs for a smooth rocking experience. Each morning we bring the two chairs out because there’s no where we’d rather spend our time than here soaking up the sun or resting in the shade with a view out over the valley encircled by far off mountains, blue in the distance, waiting for a couple toucans to fly close by.

The birds are certainly magnificent as you might imagine tropical birds to be, but the thing that really astonishes us is the insect life. Bumble bees the size of a child’s fist, tiny beetles that look like Egyptian painted armor, enormous lapis blue butterflies, unidentifiable flying objects (not your typical ufo’s) which have you wonder whether they are a small bird or a large insect as they leave your field of vision nearly as fast as they enter….And then there’s the flora! Outside my kitchen window is a medium sized bush, or perhaps it’s a small tree. I never took much notice of it until a few days ago when these enormous fluted, bell shaped orange flowers appeared. Uta told me they are a hallucinogenic flower that only the indigenous Indians know how to use properly. Peri confirmed it a few days later when she related a horrible experience ingesting them with friends on one of her travels somewhere in India (?) We also have the Ayahuasca vine growing in our yard. But not only entheogens grow here, but also coffee beans and bananas, and that’s just in our yard! When you walk down the lane to the corner there’s a huge tree dripping with avocados. We never pass by without stopping to pick up the avocados that fall into the street below it. My former landlady whose back yard faces mine has been busy planting 50 new fruit trees this year. Already in her garden are many ripe trees loaded with different fruits. I walked over the other day to see if I could take a few lemons to make a tea for my sore throat. “Of course, help yourself,” she told me whenever I want. This morning Paul came back from the market with a new kind of fruit for me to try. On the outside it looked something like a hard strawberry. To eat it you peel off the hard outer covering, which is prickly, to uncover a large slimy grape-like fruit which you then suck off of a smooth pit. Olivia saw me eating it and cried to have it. At not even two she knows this fruit which is one of her favorites, even though it looks to take the skill of an adult to know how to eat this fruit properly. Paul simply wanted an excuse to give this new friend a little money by buying some fruit from him in the market. He comes by to borrow Uta’s bike and scours the surrounding area to find fruits to sell at the market for a few extra reals. This is a land of abundance in that regard. The fruits are there for the picking for anyone who walks by. And what is not an edible fruit is likely a valuable medicinal herb or a tea! Here in the cerrada the biodiversity is greater than in any other land form and it is the birthplace of the waters that create the Amazon rainforest.

Whenever we visit land someone tells us there is a spring where the water is “born.” Three of the largest rivers in Brazil that travel through several states begin here and as I’ve undoubtedly mentioned before in my accounts of this place, the waterfalls are magnificent and plentiful and each uniquely different. We returned to visit two of the other towns which are a part of this Chapada (the large preserved national parklands) a few days ago. I was impressed again at the larger size and scope of the mountains there with steep vertical rock cliff faces. There’s something about them which really call to me, maybe because of seeing that picture so clearly in my mind some time back. I still think it was trying to tell me something and I’m drawn to places with this land formation. We stopped once again at the gate where we saw a for sale sign to check on the phone number for an enquiry and encountered a man who lived beyond the gate next to the sitio (small farm) that was for sale. He pointed us in the right direction and invited us to pass through the gate to see it closer up. What was so cool was that we drove straight back from the road towards the very cliff (I thought) I saw in my vision. At the end of the lane we ended at a really cool farm up against the mountain with a view of surrounding mountains for 360* Our friend Peri called to the man sitting on his porch to ask about the place and when he finally answered her call and came over we found out we were not indeed at the farm which was for sale. But further down the road we encountered the one that was and snooped around a bit since we were told the owners were in Brasilia. What was cool about the place was a small river just beyond the fence with a white sand beach surrounded by palm trees.

There’s no doubt this place has a mysterious beauty and charm and is loaded with possibilities. Funny though, the other day when Vistara came over with a survey map of the 50 acres we were thinking of buying in her valley, and we saw the true nature of the narrow band-aid shape of land between the mountain tops and knew it wasn’t right for us. In the absence of that consideration, all possibilities opened for us once again. Now we are back to considering things that had left our view screen as viable options and the possibilities have again expanded. In fact today at the market, a friend found Paul to say that he’d like to come over and discuss some ideas about including us in their land search, while yesterday 2 other friends explored some ideas for travelling through South America together.

So we sit a lot on our porch, feeling the fresh air, thinking about things, discussing ideas and concepts and pondering what the future holds – but more and more enjoying only the present moment. Freedom is an experience we have each sought our entire lengthy lifetimes but have come to find we are truly in the presence of now. We are free to sit and “do” nothing. There is nowhere we “have” to be and nothing we “have” to do. No one has any expectations of us. Today Paul realized he is having the perfect hippie retirement. I’ll leave you readers to your own interpretation of what that might be like. I don’t have any guilt about the fact that I’m not “working” to contribute to our income. What a trap anyway…. Here we have everything we need and a little more so we can help one or two others.

About a half hour ago Uta returned home with Olivia sleeping in the baby carriage. She parked her in the yard just outside the door to their room and off the porch where I was writing and went in the room while she slept. Rocket, oblivious to the thought of keeping quiet while she slept, came running out of the room behind me, where he was napping with Paul, in full barking mode at some noise he must have thought was threatening our safety (as that is his job- to protect us from danger.) Of course Olivia awoke to his barking sat up in the stroller and looked around, catching sight of me, she smiled before the realization that her mommy wasn’t also in view and began to show a sign of worry. Now a few minutes later, sitting on the porch with a cup of yogurt, happily feeding herself, too busy to notice the stream of pee pee running down the porch from where she sat, her mother notices and brings the garden hose over to wash things down- the porch, her hands, her face, her little bottom….too cute! And now some minutes later this naked little Colombian-Argentinean girl is riding her big wheel, happily in conversation with herself and now and then with Rocket. I love this baby energy! She is just delightful. I might have left this porch today, but I have a bad cold and just didn’t have the energy to go anywhere. Had an invitation to join friends to walk to the river for a swim, another to go to a waterfall, but the Way wanted me to stay home today and rest up, get rid of this miserable cold- so another day will present other opportunities- today rest.

Friday January 15, 2010

Today, a solar eclipse of a new moon…..

So, without a review of what I’ve already written, I shall continue…. This was a rough few days for me. I got sick with a sore throat which continued into a cold. My body needed simply to rest and do nothing for several days. Funny but I’d just been reading about a transit which predicted that an illness could likely occur. We postponed a trip south to Brasilia to get Paul a Brazilian drivers license (before his expires next week) until I would hopefully feel better and left this Monday instead. Our dear friend from Ecletica accompanied us to Brasilia where we met with our lawyers to follow up on our visas and then continued to the various necessary places to accommodate all the bureaucracy which was required. At the end of the day, we realized another day or two would be required.

Ganeesh (the nickname we have given to our friend) told us about a sudden illness he had been stricken with the day before Christmas. As if possessed while sitting in his easy chair watching TV, he began to violently vomit and suffer from diarrhea, losing use of the movement in his limbs for several days to follow. Calling to his friends for help in healing, they came saying that he had been on the edge of death and had called none too soon, as serious dehydration had overtaken him. The entities which had come to heal him spoke of the possibility that he had been taken to a war stricken battlefield to aid in the transition process of lost souls on their path between lives. Stories like this which once would have sounded too absurd and impossible to believe, coming from a spiritist are common place. To incorporate spirit entities opens one to more damaging effects as the absorption of negativity energy is inevitable when they are healing another. The gift with which they endeavor to garner is the ability to invoke protection during this process and quickly cleanse themselves of these negative energies. This is why you always see the mediums giving each other passes before and after they offer this service.

With this story fresh in my mind, coming home to High Paradise I was eager to visit the Vale da Amenhecer who have a branch nearby. Having visited the main location on our very first trip to Brazil, I was excited to visit the local branch here and have a healing from the mediums. I’d been shown by a friend when we first arrived here where their Temple was and I knew that they held a service twice a week, but hadn’t yet found the right opportunity to visit until Wednesday night when my two friends accompanied me. Ganeesh tells me that Vale da Amanhecer and Ecletica’s mediums operate in very similar ways and once thought to join together and work as one but decided against this since both techniques were quite effective in their own way. This Wednesday night when Uta, Peri and I arrived at the start of the service we were led to a bench from where we could observe while the mediums sang prayers for a while before ceremoniously smoking the space inside of the temple as well as all the people with incense before gathering around a special table where they worked to usher lost souls to the world beyond this one in their transition from this life to the next. This lasted quite a while and there was not much to see during this process as our seats were nearly around a corner from where this took place. When this ended the mediums came directly in front of where we sat to another room filled with special benches made for two to sit side by side, each with a red upholstered banquet placed in front so that it resembled booths in a diner in a strange way. Pairs of mediums sat together as we watched one of each pair incorporate a spirit entity, after which we were each invited to sit next to the medium while their helping partner stood behind. The helper spoke with us and encouraged us to ask whatever questions we had. As I sat next to my medium, she chanted praise to very many different saints and priestesses, giving thanks to each while she held my hands in hers. Though I could not understand well what she spoke because of my language comprehension, with the help of her partner who could speak one or two words in English to try to assist me, I heard her say that I had a very big heart and that I would be able to easily understand her. When I could not think of a question to ask her, she said I needed only to hold the question in my mind and she would know what it was.

After this part was over we returned to our benches for a short while before being called to another room in the temple where we each laid down on a table, like you would find in a doctors office or for a massage, under a sheet with our head facing towards the medium for a healing while the mediums helper stood next to us. I could not actually feel much during this process but when it was over and I followed the person who was directing me to the next place in the temple where I was to wait, I noticed I was a bit dizzy. The man sitting next to me on the bench commented that he too felt this same way as we awaited the others to come and join us. We were a small group attending the service this night, probably only about 10 people, compared with 100 who might attend the service on a Wednesday night in Ecletica. When we all finished this healing we were taken to another inner chamber of the temple where we sat on a bench in the center of the small room while the mediums stood around the outside walls surrounding us, all engaged in singing a song. The music was enchanting and the energy in the room was palpable. The mediums standing behind us then came forward to stand close behind us while one passed their hands above each of our heads, touching our forehead and then lightly tapping our back three times, repeating this process several times. It was a very special energy I could feel with each touch and later Peri told me that she felt this too. From this room, we left to another part of the temple where we were again instructed to take a little salt and place it on our tongue and place a drop of water on each temple before entering a room where we were to stand before three different mediums for passes. In this room, the mediums giving the passes were deeply in trance and many were speaking in tongues, unintelligible even to Portuguese speakers I think. All but one of the mediums were dressed in brown skirts or trousers with a white vest covered with different patches over a black shirt, while one wore all white signifying a special status. I mention this because as we stood waiting to enter this room, she incorporated an entity who spoke with a very deep mans voice. This was startling and quite intriguing to watch and listen to. While I stood before an Indian looking man with long black hair, who was deeply entranced and speaking heavily in tongues, Peri stood next to me in front of this woman in white and later said how powerful the energy was to be healed by her. As each part of the process ended we would be taken to another area with benches where we would wait for the others to finish. Uta who carried Olivia in her arms, occasionally nursing her before she eventually fell asleep, was the last to finish each process, though first to enter the room of the singing mediums. As we waited for them to come from the last room, Peri and I were taken to a place where we were each given an empty bottle and told to pray for what we needed as we filled them with water, being told that the entities would fill the bottle with just what we needed. We continued around the circular path of the temple to wait for Uta and Olivia and then departed, walking the path through the gardens and back to the car.

Like my first visit to the Vale do Amanhecer, this was more bizarre than any experience I’d ever encountered, though now a year later I have some understanding of the intention behind the rituals and continue to be fascinated by them. Spiritism does not hold the same interest for me as it once did in that I no longer wish to study to become a medium myself, but I still desire to know more about it and feel quite drawn to the experience. I like to be in the presence of the entities and feel that energy, though I am more cautious about being where they strictly work with light forces, knowing now about the forces of black magic.

Tuesday January 19, 2010

Just a quick note today before I wrap this up. We’ll leave in a few hours to return to Brasilia to complete the necessary bureaucracy for the driver’s license. Again it will entail some help from “Ganeesh” who will assist us in locating one of the preferred physicians for the medical exam required to get the license. There are times when we do not require translation and can get by on our own, but getting around Brasilia itself is quite a challenge still. Upon my return I will resume our travelogue as new possibilities are emerging that I will share with you.

Until then, we send our love and wishes for your continued well being and happiness.

December 29, 2009

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

I’m getting a real feel for rainy season now. It seems to present a familiar pattern that lasts for several days and then changes. For the last several days we have had cloudy skies all day, intermittent sunshine, late afternoon rain followed by all night rain. Next week it will likely change and rain consistently in the morning only or some other such pattern and just when you think you can expect more of the same, it will change again.

Funny how quickly one adjusts and forgets how things used to be. I just received a response to a question I posted on the Gringoes website about moving to Brazil and what to bring. I posted that question months before moving here and had completely forgotten even about the website for information about moving to Brazil. I could easily answer that question for another American now making a similar move and so I did send along my thoughts on his similar questions.

I don’t know if this is true for any of you, but for me I get so grounded in my current experience that I quickly forget how it used to be before now. Sometimes only a day passes and I’ve forgotten how only yesterday it was quite different. I’ve gotten so used to living in this house I’ve already forgotten what it was like in the last one. At the moment my back is so covered with itchy mosquito bites I can’t remember what it was like before without them (stupid example- but I was distracted by the itch!) I’m feeling house bound at the moment because I haven’t seen the sun in several days for more than a passing moment. I suppose many of you are experiencing wintery snowy and cold conditions at the moment and missing out on summer days? Even though it’s officially “summer” here, it’s not really like that. We have two seasons in this part of Brazil, “rainy” and “dry.” Rainy season is actually cooler than dry season when it can get quite hot. And then there’s high season and low season because I live in an eco tourist area. I am learning the ins and outs of this phenomenon too. July and August apparently bring the most people to the region, when hikers can be assured of a good dry day. We’ve never been in this place during high season, so we have no idea how much it will change. I imagine we will find that more restaurants and shops will be open for business. Yesterday we learned that lots of people usually leave this time of year to go to the beach and return around March.

Many people we met only a few weeks ago have left to travel to the coast of Bahia where there is a huge “trance” festival on the beach just north of Salvador. It’s called “Parallel Universe, but of course in Portuguese its Universo Parallelo or something quite close, (forgive the inaccuracy of my details, please.) I think it’s something similar to the “Burning Man” festival in the States. If you are in that age group and inclined to that persuasion, wherever you live in the world, that is where you go for days of great music and mind altering psycho actives to alter your consciousness. Never having been to a festival of this nature I can not really comment on the activity. Seems to me, and I know I could be very wrong, that using psycho actives in this environment is more for the activity of “partying” than expanding consciousness, but it would be erroneous of me to judge something I’ve never personally experienced. There’s a part of me that would love the experience and a much larger part of me that recoils from such large crowds. Way too much energy for me.

Even just the other night I had a very insightful experience of this similar nature. My friend called to tell me that a bunch of people were going over to the bar to listen to a good band. Never having been to that bar, I was curious and I always enjoy good live music so I accepted the invitation without even consulting Paul and told him we were going. Big mistake! He hates things like that. When we got there our friend was not yet there and typical for the introverts we are, we found a table in the corner we could observe from and wait for our friend. Meanwhile we felt the uncomfortable feelings so common to introverts in a completely extroverted environment while all our energy was being sucked out of us by the extroverts in the room who simply get “juiced” from being around lots of people and frenetic energy and activity. It wasn’t long before I agreed to leave and Paul was relieved to not have to stay a moment longer. He was not only ready to leave the moment we arrived but he didn’t want to even go in the first place. For me it is like a moth being drawn to the flame. I want to go and be there but I don’t really want to be there. I finally understood why. Being an introvert is a big part of it, but being open is an even bigger factor. As open as we are, we have a tendency to pick up all the vibrations and energies of the people in the room around us. In a bar, of course there is plenty of alcohol and that affects people in a myriad of different ways but generally in some rather negative ways. All those vibrations have a tendency to make us feel confused. Often it shows up like inadequacy or low self image; for example one might ask themselves the question, “Why does everyone else always have a good time and I never do?” or “how come everyone else seems to know everyone here?” or something along those lines….. Have any of you ever been given any education or information about the differences between introversion and extraversion or considered the features of those different personality traits? I never was. Unless you’ve taken an interest in psychology, why would you know about the Myers Briggs personality trait system, for example? It’s an interesting study if you have an inclination towards deeper understanding of yourselves or even other people. Instead of the usual assumption that there must be something wrong with me, since “everyone else” is having a good time, it’s reassuring to know that extroverts thrive on being around lots of people, lots of activity and get their energy from other people while introverts feel drained by the very same environment. Those damn extroverts are sucking out all our energy for god sake! Just kidding all you extroverts. For you, unless you can get out into all that activity, you feel drained, unrealized or bored…. It takes a long time to figure these things out, because no one actually bothers to explain this stuff to us when we’re young and deeply suffering through these seemingly normal things.

It’s quiet today. A good napping day- cloudy afternoon – Uta and Olivia have gone off to the Bamboo Praca, a square where there will be a 4 day festival during which many artisans will sell their crafts. Uta is preparing the area where she will set up her space to sell her banana leaf crafts. They are quite beautiful works of art, wallets, book covers, small purses and various other objects. She is quite a good artist. I’m looking forward to the event which will also include meditations and yoga, informational sessions on medicinal plants, music and dance. This I think is where we will celebrate New Year’s Eve.

I haven’t left the house much since I moved into this valley. It’s ever so peaceful and lovely here. I’ve no desire to run around town, shopping for this or that. I’d rather just swing in the hammock, sit on the porch watching the birds, cook something……life is good at the moment.

I’m starting to think of being alone in Brazil for three months while Paul returns to work in the States as it is looking likely he will. We’re hoping that we will have purchased land by then and will have begun building. I’m inviting you (if you are indeed the right person, you will know it) to come stay for a while, keep me company, help me build. I think it’s going to be an incredible experience to fashion this house from cob or from adobe. An incredible creative and grounding experience. And the valley where we think we’ll be building couldn’t be more peaceful and beautiful with the river to cool off in on hot days……

Peri came over to visit this morning just as we were having coffee and homemade whole wheat tortillas fresh off the stove. She is a good friend of Uta and I appreciate conversations with her and hearing her perspective. A Belgium woman, she travels alone while her boyfriend visits his family in the south of Brazil. She like so many others is a traveling artisan. They simply travel the world selling their arts and their crafts. Seems to me back in the late sixties and early seventies, when we were quite young, Americans did this more than they do now. But lately or perhaps I’m simply out of touch because I’m in my fifties now and we (in this age range) don’t do this sort of thing any longer. Still it seems to me that we Americans have been too frightened to pick up and travel penniless around the world, hitch hiking and staying with people we meet along the way, going from place to place, wherever the wind blows us. Used to be if we were of a spiritual nature, we might travel to India to study with an ascended master. Doesn’t seem to be like that so much anymore. Too many years of mind control, scaring us into staying put inside the country where we’re safe and know the language. What a rip off! No ability to speak multiple languages so we’re afraid to travel and see the world around us. Such a limited perspective! Well maybe I’m wrong and it’s only me who was too scared to do that or too busy with a different kind of life to consider it…..I have so much admiration for these young women who travel alone. I was much too timid to do it and still am, actually. Give me a travelling companion and I’ll go almost anywhere, but not alone…..

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

We’re watching Gerald Celente on Alex Jones TV 1/4 "Obamageddon!!" on You Tube. He is a trends researcher. They are talking about the botched terrorist attack in Detroit and commenting on the measures that have been put in place now with full body scans at airports. He has been predicting large scale terrorist attacks like 9-11’s Twin Towers in 2010 and the closing of the banks with the subsequent devaluing of the currency to at least half. And now we are hearing about war in Yemen. Get ready for a wild ride. Whatever you are doing, I am suggesting making some sort of contingency plans for a total economic collapse. Do you have a place you can go where you can grow your own food and get pure water, if the need arises? Can you put enough money aside to get there? Not to be afraid, but think about worst case scenarios just to have a plan in place and be prepared for the worst. Then it will be easier and less frightening if things get bad. Find communities who are working together to live without government systems and who support one another with the new ways (the old ways) of living independently. Brattleboro, Vermont has a fantastic group called Post Oil Solutions who sponsor workshops on teaching people how to relearn how to feed themselves and so much more. It’s a good model for other communities to learn from.

I think this is a time when we need to find people interested in banding together to help one another with the simple arts of survival independent of consumer corporate and government systems. Sharing resources, helping raise the children together…. One common garden can feed many families. Several people working together can build shelters where everyone can live a comfortable life. I’m learning about building with cob- a combination of clay, sand, straw and earth, packed into a mud pie. Relatively easy and free and will be standing centuries from now, even after earthquakes and catastrophic weather events.

New Years Day

January 1, 2010

A shift has taken place. I don’t know if you can feel it? I can. Yesterday, the last day of 2009, was a lunar eclipse of a blue moon. This is a significant event. For those of you who do not know, a blue moon occurs when there are two full moons in one month. The second full moon is called a blue moon. A lunar eclipse of a full moon on the last day of the year brings many things to fruition. It was particularly impactful for both Paul and I.

All day it rained here. The town has gone to considerable lengths to create a 4 day peace celebration in a plaza on the edge of town which they call Praca da Bambu, the Place of Bamboo. At the end of the main street and around a bend, five streets converge around what was a quiet little park with a large stand of bamboo. For several days it was transformed into a festival site with a series of large circus style tents, a stage and dance floor, giant video screens, bon fires in the park, some vendor tents, play areas for the small children, softly lit by gourd lanterns….and so much more…. I was impressed that this modest and humble little town could produce something of such professional quality and decorate it so artistically. Incredible! My friends who are both artisans have been busy constructing part of the vendors’ booths all during the week leading up to this weekend. The rains have been unrelenting, but true to the nature of most people in this place, they went with the flow and waited out the rains for breaks in the weather.

By half past three the rain eased up and we began to prepare to go for the pre-party celebration ceremony to close out the end of 2009 in advance of the opening ceremonies scheduled to begin at 8 pm. My Italian friend had dropped by the house the day before to invite us to attend this unpublicized event led by an Amazonian Shaman woman. We arrived a bit late, after last minute preparations to leave the house after a day in which it seemed the rain would not let up, to find the group encircling the dance floor involved in contemplative prayer like ritual and decided not to join in but to instead observe from a distance while our friends began to set up their displays. After a somewhat cynical review of the process which was by this time nearing its conclusion by our friend Tivani, we returned to the house to rest up for the evening ahead, thinking it wise if we were to usher in the new year.

Rocket was a muddy mess when we got back, having walked through several puddles and being the low rider that he is, needed a bath before being given free range of the house and in particular the bed where we knew he would head the minute we did. In the process Paul wrenched his back, gaining the perfect excuse to opt out of the evenings festivities and remain behind later when I eventually returned with Uta for the party.

Not long after we returned to the festa, the skies let loose once again with a deluge, corralling everyone under the main tent and off the open areas of the park where various other activities were taking place. At this point in the evening several different groups were presenting various things which I was at a loss to understand, as my Portuguese comprehension declines quickly as the night wears on. And also (just as a side note) my ability to understand compels me to be entirely focused on the person who is speaking directly to me and intends for me to understand, it requires eye contact, body language, context and concentration- so a public performance still goes mostly over my head (and comprehension.) I think there was a peace prayer to usher in the New Year and then (I was told) some chanting from the Hare Kristnas. When the rains began to increase, I went to the car to pull out Olivia’s stroller for Uta when I saw my friend Tivani sitting in her truck with the window down waiting out the rain. It seemed the perfect place for me to participate in the festa from a dry observation point in conversation (in English) with my friend. She didn’t have a very favorable opinion about the Hare Krishnas and lamented the wait for the rock and roll band to begin and in her opinion the party to get underway. This you see is a typical illustration of the people in this town with so many various groups of religious, spiritual and philosophical varieties and interests represented! And the rock and roll music was just the beginning of the different kinds of music to follow. I quickly made my way through the rain drops back to the stage to get a closer look at the new scene that was happening since the Hare Krishnas left and the rock and roll began. A starry sky was painted on the ceiling of the tent, lighting worked its magic and artistic mobiles dangled overhead while projectors screened a Cirque du Soliel trapeze act on one wall and people crowded the dance floor in typical New Years Eve style. As my friend danced her way toward the musicians on stage, I opted for an early retreat to join Paul back at home to usher in midnight. Uta and Peri decided to join me in a more serene and dry location and get Olivia from the stroller and into bed. Still pouring, we were really glad we’d decided to come by car this time instead of walking as we made our way back to the crazy lane which leads to our house. Peri is staying beyond our house where the lane winds past and up the hill to the top over looking the next valley, a part of the lane restricted to 4 wheel drive vehicles where my car will not go. But she wanted to quietly bring in the new year with us before considering the long trek up the muddy hill and then later accepted our invitation to stay overnight with us.

Home only a few minutes, Paul called us to the window where he stood watching an excellent display of fire works, when we noticed the rain had stopped the moment we arrived home, just in time for midnight. Turned out we’d found the perfect observation post to watch the fireworks show and mother nature had cooperated in clearing the skies just in time. The people who remained at the party were blessed with four more hours of clear skies and the campfires were re-lit while the music played long into the morning.

I’m writing to you now from my desk at 2 am New Years Day because I can’t sleep to the heavy boom of repetitive music with no artistic merit (just my opinion) that is still playing (day #2). I’m wearing headphones to drown out the annoying heavy bass beat. Sounds a little like Rap music when I remove the headphones to get a better idea. No idea how Paul is sleeping through it! Last night at least they were playing really good music; it didn’t matter so much I could hear it so well from my valley more than 6 blocks away…..until 4 am….

Ahhhhh, at last the music has ended. I can only hope that it is not just a break between bands. Now perhaps some sleep………

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

I suppose you could say that we are returning to a more normal sense of reality with the holidays behind us and life back to routine, but that’s not at all the case. It gets more and more surreal. Afraid I got a bad cold with a killer sore throat and ceaseless headaches so I am laying low. But honestly, since I arrived in this house on the 20^th of December, I haven’t wanted to leave my back porch much. Its quiet (during the day when the music isn’t playing all night long) it’s beautiful and there isn’t anywhere I’d rather be. Just this morning after breakfast we were sitting there with a cup of coffee when 2 toucans flew quite low across our vista. “Wow” is about all you can say. No matter how many times you see them you can never really get over how incredible they are.

The festival is over and I thought maybe when that happened it would return to the way it was before, but no, it’s different yet. Last night Paul, Uta, Olivia, Peri and I were just about to sit down to a spaghetti dinner which Paul had prepared when Uta’s friend Torrio came to the door. We asked her to join us and not long after her 3 travelling companions all showed up at the door with several backpacks and suitcases. We were worried for a moment that they all intended to camp out at our house and we were not at all interested in that prospect. Just then Tivani and her boyfriend showed up and were quite concerned that we would allow them to stay. You see Tivani is renting this house to us and concerned that we would have things disappear from the house. But fortunately they were all just passing by and before long the house returned to its former serene state as all but one visitor left and we settled in for the night. Torrio, who spent the night here with Uta and Olivia, told us of her travels to Uberaba in Minas Gerais where there had been 45 straight days of rain, flooding and mudslides where one village was completely destroyed. She arrived sick with a cold and backpacks full of wet clothes. This horrendous flooding all over the south of Brazil was in the news months ago when we last travelled south and saw the televised news during our visit. Apparently it is still happening. I haven’t been keeping up with the local news so much without television here or even newspapers – only the world events which we follow religiously on the internet.

The rains have stopped during the day for the last three days, giving us a well needed break and some sunshine. On Saturday we returned to paradise valley where we are looking at some land we might invest in and build ourselves a home. Two friends of our realtor joined us to interpret and share with us their vision for this valley. Everyone here, or so it seems, has some sort of vision or project for the future involving buying land and starting small communities. Each one is just a little different. These three friends, the realtor included, have a vision for this valley in which they all will own a small piece. It is a dharma project. They intend to invite three Buddhist llamas to come to the valley from time to time to give dharma talks in a retreat setting. They have set aside 100 acres in the center of the valley to build this small retreat center to have very small groups come for short times- perhaps 6 people for up to 2 weeks at a time. In the rest of the valley they each intend to build a small house where they will come from time to time. It seems that we might be the only people in the valley who intend to live there full time. Although there is still one piece of about 50 acres next to where we are looking that is unspoken for….

Well, we were charmed once again to return to this enchanting place where the valley rests between two somewhat steep mountains with a small river through the center. At the opening end where we would be, there is a vertical rock wall with a spring emerging, cascading water straight down the rock face, an open field, dense forest and a meandering river, views far into the distance in one direction of cone shaped mountains jutting from the farmed plains and the rest of the secluded beautiful valley, nestled in between the gradually sloping hills in the other. But our friend Tivani says, “Why buy 50 acres there when I can sell you 500 acres for the same price if you come further from town to my valley?”

Her valley, she tells us, consists of 9 kilometers of rivers and waterfalls, pumas and 5 foot tall monkeys. Though we haven’t seen it yet, we know that it is remotely in the jungle requiring a hike in for 1 ½ hours. It sounds intriguing, but I’m not so sure I’m ready to be that remote.

So its 5 days into the New Year. There have been parties and celebrations and rituals here since Christmas. From our open (and even closed) windows we can hear everyone’s music. Sometimes we enjoy it when we like the music, while other times it can be troublesome, particularly at 4 am when it’s a repetitive drum beat or an eerily strange Ayahuasca song. But just a night or two ago when the festival was still going on, we sat outside on the back porch watching a sky full of more stars than I’ve ever seen, listening to a really great band playing at the festival 6 blocks (more or less) away. There are 2 other houses in this valley with us. You can not really see them from here; they each sit over the hill in a different direction, but access their way in past our house. It seems that in one, they were making the Ayahuasca tea, a ritualistic process itself, during which special music is played day and night for about 3 days. So strange! So different than my former life in the mountains of Vermont. At last, it is quiet – no parties, no music, simply the sound of this computer as the fan cools the workings….No one’s home, no one’s visiting…..

Ah, speaking of visiting, no one does it like Brazilians! Yesterday we had visitors non stop. We had one item to attend to on our agenda for the day – a trip to the grocery store. About 4, our 2^nd visitor left and we started out the gate when our 3^rd visitor showed up so we came back in to visit once again. I think we got to the store about 6 o’clock. What a life, huh?

Well my dear friends and loved ones, I shall end this 1^st newsletter of the new year with wishes to each and every one of you for a blessed 2010. Live each day as if it were your last, surrounding yourself with love. Until next time…………….